


Shelter

by thisfairytalegonebad



Series: Jaith/Jeith week 2018 [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Guardian Angel AU, James is Keith's guardian angel, M/M, but still set in the canonverse, mecha lions and all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 16:46:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16021937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisfairytalegonebad/pseuds/thisfairytalegonebad
Summary: Being Keith's guardian angel is a very, very tiring job.





	Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> As soon as there's no prompt, my creativity is gone. Awesome. So yeah, this is the extra day for Jaith Week on Tumblr. I chose to go with a guardian angel AU. Enjoy!

James hated his job. He usually didn’t, but ever since this kid had been born, he’d been working overtime, for _eighteen years now_.

Keith was the nightmare of every guardian angel, and James thought it was really, really unfair how he had been assigned to him when he’d only been a child too. A child who just happened to be a guardian angel, but a child nonetheless. Keith definitely made sure James had to grow very responsible very quickly.

At four years old, he tripped on the first step of the wooden stairs in his home, falling down the entire flight as a result.

His father told him he’d been really lucky. Lucky, his ass, James thought. It was all his hard work, no luck involved. Just skill, thank you very much.

At five, Keith very, very nearly got lost in the desert and died from dehydration. It was only thanks to Keith’s apparent affinity to sensing supernatural energy that permitted him to subtly nudge Keith back in the right direction to the shed he and his father inhabited.

Keith’s father made sure to teach Keith everything about surviving in the desert he needed to know, so that was at least one thing less to worry about for James.

Then, at seven, he tried to climb a very old, very dry tree, which promptly decided to rid itself of one of his branches when Keith had climbed nearly all the way up.

James couldn’t protect him from breaking a bone, but he was able to make sure it was his arm that broke instead of his spine.

Those were all just the more terrifying incidents, of course. There were countless little accidents, such as cutting himself with a knife by accident (why the child had a knife of all things really was beyond James), falling off his skateboard, trying to pet approximately five snakes before his father finally remembered to teach him about venomous snakes. It was… a lot.

It got worse when Keith lost his father and got into the foster system, where there seemed to be more bad people on his way than good ones. James did his best to protect him, but he couldn’t prevent him from acquiring a handful of new scars, both physical and mental.

But then, Keith had to go and get on a giant lion shaped alien spaceship with a bunch of strangers and fly off to space.

Space was pretty, James had to admit, and there weren’t that many guardian angels who got to experience it the way he was, since they were tied to their charge and all, so he supposed he could have thanked Keith for that.

But apparently, the price for the extraordinary experience - which got old kind of fast anyway - was a whole bunch of extremely messed up incidents and accidents that would probably have sent James into cardiac arrest, if angels had a beating heart in the first place.

Keith was being sucked out into space more than once, hunted by all kinds of strange creatures, decided to fight a group of Galra soldiers for days only to join their top secret organization. It was a mess, honestly.

During all those years with Keith, James had gotten used to the frequent dangerous situations Keith got himself into, and he liked to think he was at least somewhat calmer about it than he had been the first few years.

But when Keith was steering his fighter straight towards the barrier of the enemy ship to crash himself into it and save his friends, that was when James truly thought Keith was going to die. There wouldn’t be anything he could do against an explosion. He might have been an angel, but Keith was only human - alright, half human, but James seriously doubted Galra were fireproof - and there was no way he could survive something like this.

“God damnit, Keith,” James whispered. He had been by Keith's side ever since they were both children. By his side from the very beginning, and the only thing he could do was standing by Keith’s side until the very end.

Suddenly, something flashed in the distance and James whirled around for a better look. And- there, Prince Lotor’s ship was firing at the barrier, breaking it, and they were still going at full speed, too fast, too close, and James desperately grabbed Keith’s hands where they were wrapped around the levers, pulling them back with all his might so they dashed past the enemy ship in the last possible second.

“Oh my god,” James sighed, relief making his legs shaky. “That was so close, god, _Keith_.”

From that point, every wound Keith acquired in battle suddenly seemed a lot less scary to James, because if there was a wound, there was at least something that could be treated. A wound wasn’t always a hopeless situation. Anything was better than getting blown into pieces, quite honestly.

And then, they were on a solo mission gone wrong, and Keith was lying on the ground panting and trying to staunch the blood flow from his stomach as he waited for his fellow paladins to rescue him, but James could tell it was getting harder and harder for him to hang on.

“C’mon, I didn’t keep you alive for eighteen years just so you can die here, pull yourself together man,” James told him fervently. “If you die like this, I’m going to be seriously offended on your behalf because this is just ridiculous. You-” he cut himself off, because Keith’s head lolled towards him and Keith was staring, eyes surprisingly lucid considering his state, and he wasn’t just staring in his direction, he was staring _at_ him.

“Uh… Keith?” James tried, because surely that couldn’t be possible.

Keith frowned, trying to say something but he coughed wetly instead. Only the second attempt was successful. “You…”

James’ eyes widened. “Wait, you can actually see me?” That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all. If Keith could see him, that meant he was extremely close to death, even closer than James had assumed. 

“Are you my… guardian angel or s’mething?” Keith slurred, his gaze becoming less and less focused.

“Yeah!” James said hurriedly, maybe conversation could help him keep Keith awake. “Yeah, exactly that. My name is James, I’ve been guarding your idiotic ass for eighteen years now and you haven’t made it easy!”

Keith huffed out a laugh. “Thanks. Y’re hot…”

James’ cheeks reddened. “Uh… thank you? You… you too?”

“You gonna stay with me until..?” Keith asked quietly, and James decided he didn’t like the tone one bit.

“No, no, you’re not going anywhere. Listen to me, I’m gonna stay with you forever, but your friends are gonna show up any second now, and you’ll be fine, nobody’s dying here tod-”

As if on cue, there was yelling in the distance, and only a minute later, Keith’s entire team stormed up to them, loud and worried and definitely capable of helping.

Stepping back, James locked eyes with Keith for one last time. “Stop being so reckless, will you?”

“No promises,” Keith whispered back with a tiny smile before his eyes closed and he passed out, safe in the care of his friends.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it! The final day. It's been fun, and I'm proud I managed to write something for each day. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Here's the link to the Tumblr post for this event for anyone who's interested: https://jamesandkeith.tumblr.com/post/177174562099/james-and-keith-week-is-anyone-really-surprised


End file.
